Board changes plannedwithout communication

To the editor

   REACH parents do not object at all to enrichment in the regular classroom.
   REACH parents object to the Hillsborough school district administration’s insufficient process and poor communication, related to terminating first grade REACH next year, with second grade REACH termination targeted for the following school year. That has been the discussion with the Board of Education and the REACH parents.
   A few years ago, the administration explained to the REACH parents and the community at large, that an in-class enrichment program would be piloted in the first and second grade as both a quality replacement for the REACH program currently offered to first and second grade children and it would also serve to enrich curriculum for all students in the first grade and second grade.
   The pilot would be evaluated against both of these goals. The in-class enrichment pilot offers 12 hours of lesson for the first grade class per school year (approximately 1 percent of instruction time) with the REACH teacher in the regular classroom. The REACH program offers 82 hours of advanced instruction for identified advanced learners (REACH students) per school year, less than 10 percent of instruction time.
   Without communication to the public or at a minimum to the very involved and supportive REACH parents group, this spring, all REACH nominations for first grade from kindergarten and TP were stopped district wide — effectively ending the first grade REACH program for the next school year.
   No letter to kindergarten or TP parents was sent home. No public process, no communication.
   The evaluation of the pilot program consisted of a survey conducted January 2001. The school administration, principals, and teachers indicated that there was strong support for the in-class enrichment.
   Now upon review of the pilot program survey questions, we find the survey does not ask even one question asking whether or not the in-class enrichment pilot program is an adequate replacement for the REACH program currently offered to first graders. It basically asks: do you support enrichment in the regular classroom?
   We all support enrichment. We just would like to know if the in-class enrichment pilot also meets its other significant goal, as a quality replacement of the first grade REACH program, before steps are taken to eliminate the first grade REACH program. That evaluation has not taken place.
We, as REACH parents, would like first grade REACH to be restored (along with its K and TP student nomination process) until a REACH replacement evaluation has been conducted and we would like to be part of that evaluation process.
   Further, other changes related to IQ testing for entry to the REACH program were made without any discussion with the public and the District Supervisor for the REACH program has recently left the program — leaving it without a program supervisor, again no public discussion about transition plans.
   Providing high quality and cost efficient education for our children depends on an effective working partnership between the tax paying public, the school administration and teachers and our enthusiastic children. Outstanding communication within that partnership is essential or the partnership will suffer in performance and ultimately fail.
   Let’s improve the process and communicate much better.